Replaced
by supernerdy
Summary: What would you do if you woke up 26 years in the future and learned you were your own daughter, your cousin knew that you would murder her, and that your mother was dead? *Complete*
1. Chapter 1

"Ooooh….. This is the song that never ends. And it goes on and on my friends. Some people – glmfGahHAHAkl!" The Gasser's off-key singing was interrupted by Iggy dumping our last bottle of water over his partner in crime's head, and then tackling the little pip-squeak.

I looked the other way pretending not to notice, only to find that Iggy hadn't used the last of the water.

"GAH," I screamed a little more shrilly than I had intended, but I covered the shriek up with my usual list of death threats, all directed at the blind kid who had poured water into my ear.

I had Iggy in a half nelson (something that is difficult to do while flying) when everything went black. It took me a minute to realize that it wasn't the sun passing over a cloud or something; the problem was with me. _I_ couln't see a thing. For some reason however, the loss of a sense didn't seem to affect my actions. It was as if I had been set on auto drive.

As suddenly as my sight had left, my hearing went away with a little *pop*. But I could still feel myself shouting words I couldn't hear, and tackling the Iggy I couldn't see. Slowly my other senses began fading and after a few minutes I was unconscious.

The second I awoke I knew something wasn't right. Even before I opened my eyes, things were… different. Taking a look around just supported that theory. I was in what appeared to be a dilapidated science lab.

"Oh, joy," I mumbled with oodles of sarcasm, stubbing my toe as I stood up from the lab bed I had been lying on. Note that it was a bed and not a cot or a dog cage – yes-sir-ee, Max the lab rat was moving up in the world.

What had happened? I mean one minute we were all flying back to my mom's place, then the next second, *poof*! And where was my flock? Upon longer inspection of the lab I found that most of it had been burned to the ground, and the few whitecoats who had been there had been roasted extra crispy. I also noted that the sun was further to the east, a day must have passed.

There was one thing that really intrigued me. I looked different. Had those scientists been playing Barbie with an experiment? I mean why had they died my hair black? And my face looked a little unlike how it usually was. But I also looked fairly the same; my eyes and wings were just as they had always been.

By now I had a lot of questions, but I was far too focused on finding my family to really care too much about the answers.

I noticed from my vantage point of about twenty feet up that there was one conscience person below. I decided confronting her for answers might be a better game plan then sitting around waiting for an epiphany.

"Hey!" I called in her direction. She swiveled around to face me like one of those alligator ballerinas in Fantasia. It took her a minute to process what she was seeing. You would think for someone that worked with mutants she might have seen a flying kid before. I was a little offended; it had almost been a bit of fun being ITEX's headline news. Except for them trying to kill us and sell us to different countries and all that.

The girl's brain seemed to catch up with what she was seeing. She started panting and her eyes crossed a little. With a blood curdling scream she started to sprint away, chucking off her backpack so she could run faster.

Huh. I know I can look pretty dang intimidating when I want to, but I had actually been striving for kind and trustworthy. Apparently I hadn't made such a good first impression.

No matter how fast she could run, I could still out fly her. I even switched into hyper speed, not that I was showing off or anything.

Um, except I didn't actually start flying faster. I tried again and got the same result. Oh, wells I was still catching up and she knew it.

That was probably why she jumped into the air and unfurled a pair of pale yellow wings.


	2. Chapter 2

Most people in my situation would just let the girl go. I mean, she was probably a white coat that would try to kill me, so why chase after her? Chances are she wouldn't even know anything about my flock. Too bad for most people, they weren't in my situation.

I sped after her, trying with all my might to meet her insanely fast speed. After about five minutes Mystery Girl stopped and held her head. When she pulled her hand away I saw that nearly her entire arm was coated with red. She looked dizzy, as if she was going to fall. And then she fell.

Picture two circles, one just the tinniest smidge of a bit bigger than the other. The smaller one is inside the larger. Now label the bigger circle **Things I Have Done** and the other circle **Stupid Things I Have Done. **Congratulations, you have now learned about Venn diagrams. Hey, don't act so surprised. I went to that day and night school for almost a day and a night.

Anyway, let's get back on topic. Being my usual hero-y self, I rushed forward and caught her before she hit ground. Besides the wings she looked fairly normal. She had dark brown hair and light blue eyes. Had she always looked that way? Or had her appearance been changed like mine?

After setting her down on the grass, I went to go get her backpack. The darn thing was heavy, and when I looked inside I noticed that there were three text books at the top. Below that there appeared to be clothes.

Were the text books for school? I hoped not, because I had already ripped out a wad of science pages. It took me only about three minutes to assemble a sort of head cast helmet thing out of two old fashioned TVs (books) and a belt.

Since it was going to rain later, I decided to find a cave to stay in. It took me a surprisingly long time; I usually can find a place to stay with ease. By the looks of the gloomy terrain and the salty coastline I deduced that we must somewhere in Massachusetts. Not to mention the billboard for the Massachusetts state museum.

The billboard was actually very helpful. Somehow it had fallen over and it provided a great shelter. I carried the new comer to the hiding spot. Mystery Girl was only about 13 and she probably had hollow bones, but she still weighed like a sack of maggots. Bad experience, don't ask.

Right before I dozed off I decided to change the bandages on her head. One of the pages had been from the front of the science book, where the kids sign their names each year. The most recent was this:

**_Occi 2035_**

My head swam. Why was this book dated 26 YEARS ahead of time. But it couldn't just be that simple. Nothing in my life had EVER been that simple. What if it really was 2035? What if I hadn't just gone unconscious and had been taken to the lab? I suddenly thought of when those ITEXians had told me they had made up my life. But they hadn't made up the wings. And where was my flock? My heart nearly stopped beating. What if they had just been my imagination?

I nearly burst into to tears, and tried to convince myself that I knew that wasn't true. I thought of Angel, she couldn't have just been a dream. And the rest, they were real, I just knew. They were out there, I just wasn't with them. And somehow 26 years had passed without me aging. And my hair was black.

Right about then, my brain shut off, and I was asleep.

Okay you know that smaller circle I mentioned before? The one containing stupid things I have done? Here are some new additions:

1:) Bringing that girl with me.

2:) Not leaving her in some ditch somewhere (although keeping her alive had been a good move.)

3:) Not stealing a fire arm from the school.

4:) Not tying up Mystery Girl while I slept.


	3. Chapter 3

If you had lived with two pyromaniacs for most of your life, you would be a light sleeper too. That's why I was able to wake up a few seconds before Mystery Girl slammed down a rock where my head had been seconds before.

I leapt up to my feet in an instant and kicked her hand so that she dropped the boulder.

"Ah!" She screamed and held her arm, but at the same time she knocked me across the face with her elbow. I considered taking the high road and just fighting passively, hoping she would stop. Instead I kneed her under the chin. The high road was for losers.

She turned around and opened up her wings, looking as if she was trying to fly away. That was something I wasn't going to let happen, she may know something about my flock. I lunged for her in an attempt to keep her down.

It turned out she wasn't trying to take off. She swung around and hit me with the feathers at the end of her wing. I could have dodged it but it wasn't like a _feather_ was goin' to hurt me.

**WRONG**. Those innocent looking wings slashed across me like a blade. The outside of my forearm was oozing a steady stream. I stooped down and picked up the rock she had been using, then jumped into the star lit sky. Once I was a few feet up I came back at her, swiping at her head and attempting to knock her out.

Instead I hit the edge of her wing, which scraped away like the outer coverings whitecoats had put on flyboys. Underneath was mess of metal and wires.

I flew back up then came at her, tackling her to the ground.

"Where is my flock!?" I screamed into the scared looking teenagers face, while I held the rock in a ready-to-hit position above her head. I didn't have time for "treating others how you wanted to be treated" and all that trash.

Instead of answering she burst into hysterics.

"It was you, yes it was right, oh I knew, I saw. You came and I – oh I will. Oh please, you don't have to. The future is not written in stone, it doesn't have to be you. But it always has, hasn't it? You never knew, you may never know, but the prophecy is yours. And please may you not fulfill it! Don't give in! Don't make it true! Let me live!" The Mystery Girl – oh yeah, I can stop calling her that – Occi burst into a fit and held her arms protectively above her head.

I knew from how she was sobbing that it wasn't a common thing for her. She must really think that I would kill her. I probably wouldn't, but that didn't mean I wouldn't knock the consciousness out of her.

"Five, winged kids, have you seen them?" I asked a little more patiently. "About fifteen to seven years old?"

"I haven't seen else besides you here." Occi growled, seeming to regain some sanity. For some reason I decided I trusted her. If she was so afraid of me she probably wouldn't lie.

I interrogated her for about 25 more minutes. I could tell she was being truthful; perhaps I had scared the facts out of her. That or she was really good at lying. The only question she hadn't answered was when I asked her about her wings. At some point she completely changed the tone of the argument.

"Hey Joan, I'm hungry, aren't you?" She asked, blue eyes pleading. By the way, I hold told her my name was Joan. A lot of my actions that day may have been dumb, but I'm not a complete moron.

"My family could be dead or non-existent! This is no time for food. And wipe that smile off your face, we are not friends!"

"Yes, but I have five dollars in my back pack that we could spend at Burger Queen."

"I guess we aren't enemies either…"

Another 25 minutes was all it took for us to become totally wigged on milkshakes. I was still on my guard though; the sweets were all just part of my major plan of getting her to accidently say something she would regret. The free food was just a bonus.

"Do you have a family?" I question aloud.

"Yes. I have a twin brother. And parents. I haven't seen them in a long time though; I have been atthat lab since I was six."

I noticed a strange expression had come over her.

"Would you kill me?" She asked, nonchalantly.

"Huh?"

"You heard what I said."

Throughout the little while I had known her; I had become to like Occi. Of course that didn't mean I was an idiot, she could turn out to be a back stabbing traitor, one of _them_, or just a jerk. There was also something very odd about her. And she _had_ tried to kill me.

"If I had to. I probably wouldn't do so unless I had a good reason." I gave a shrug and a smile, as if I had just told her my favorite type of kitten was a tabby.

I reached into my salad and popped a pea into my mouth, idly curious about how sanitary my hands were. I noticed there was still some dried blood in places.

The second that pea slid down my throat I began coughing and gasping for air. My eyes watered and I looked around. No one there seemed suspicious enough to have poisoned my food. I looked and Occi. It _had_ been her idea to come here.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw my suspect dump her back pack upside-down then start searching through the junk. Did she have a gun? What was she doing?

I tried to crawl away but my throat was closing up, making it surprisingly hard to breathe. She found whatever she had been looking for. It appeared to be some sort of pickle – although that could be grossly in accurate considering that my eyes had swelled nearly completely closed.

The pickle was shoved onto my shoulder and there was a little click. I instantly felt the swelling start to go down. Once I was nearly completely back to normal Occi explained what had happened. I also noticed that half the restaurant was watching. Great, I just _love_ publicity.

"I have a similar allergic reaction to eggs," Occi explained while shoving junk back into her bag. "I carry around this thing just in case I eat some." She held up a green thing with a needle at the end. "I got lucky that it worked on you. What did you eat?"

"I ate a pea. I'm not allergic to them though, I've had them before." By now I was even more confused. If she had been trying to kill me she was doing a really bad job.

Occi suddenly collapsed into the closest chair with a look of horror on her face. She held her head between her hands and started mumbling "what have I done?" over and over. I took this as a friendly reminder that we should probably get out of the fast food place.

I shoveled the rest of the stuff into her bag, which was amazingly able to hold it all. Then I noticed something on the floor. It was probably the last thing I had expected to see.

It was a little teddy bear, with white wings and a halo.


	4. Chapter 4

I decided the Burger Queen could be the new owner of the rest of Occi's possessions, and I dragged her out of the front door by her ear. The rest of the fast-fooders gave us a strange look. They weren't my problem though. My only concern was my family, and Occi obviously knew something she hadn't been telling me.

I took her outside the building pinned her to a tree, my hand around her neck. As she had when she thought I was going to hit her head in with a rock, she began freaking out and mumbling. I very carefully calmed her down, by slapping her hard upside the head.

"What is this!?" I shoved the bear in her face. Even the stain where Angel had slipped with chocolate ice cream was on it. Along with a lot of other stains that I didn't recognize.

"It's nothing…" She muttered with an odd tone in her voice. She seemed sad, and still very terrified of me. My heart glowed a little. I might not be homecoming queen, or valedictorian, but when it comes to freakin' the tar out of people I rule.

"Where did you get this bear," I said slowly, venom dripping from my voice.

Occi gave me a strange look. "Why do you care? My aunt gave it to me." She replied, again looking a little sad.

"What is your aunt's name?"

She looked as if she might not answer, but the tightening of my hand around her throat seemed to change her mind.

"Her name was Maximum."

**Wow, that was short! I swear it looked longer on word. Did you know that Microsoft word is an evil plot to take over the world? Oh, YES! In the future everything about our lives will be stored on a word document. And what happens when a piece of that document needs to be posted on the web? *poof* it shrinks! Eventually everything will become smaller and smaller until it disappears, and the only things left will be Word and Hulu! I'm pretty sure they are working together.**

**Any-who if you want to see more of this story, please REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

My body went tense, muscles pulling in tight. My brain went whirring and puttering like a really old car's engine. Occi was spluttering and her eyes were crossing, she was reaching out to me and muttering again. Oh, oops.

I released my choke grip on her and she fell to the ground rubbing her throat.

"Your aunt is Max?" I questioned.

"Yes. She gave me Celeste when I was four."

I stared at her in amazement. She even knew the bear's name. What the heck was going on?

"Your, um well uh, _aunt_. Where is she?"

"Well that's a great question, isn't?"

"Huh?"

"Why do you care?"

"I am Max!"Oops, there goes secrecy.

Occi stared at me. Slowly she tilted up my head and stared at my eyes. Then she picked up my wing and extended it carefully. Lastly she picked up my arm and flipped it over to look at my elbow. What do ya know? There was a long scar curving around my arm.

"You're allergic to peas…" She said looking dumbfounded. "You were at the lab, you were the one. Five years. Oh my god, she is dead! Oh Laura. She-she killed, she-oh. It happened – a-and Max. Nina. And you think you are, and _you_'ll kill me." As usual she eyed me wearily. Under her breath in a dark undertone she muttered, "sorry murder" before snatching Celeste from me, kicking me in the nose, and taking off into the night sky.

By the time I looked up she was just a speck in the distance.

"Agh" I mumbled as something hit me on the head. It was a cell phone. And it was ringing.

**************************************************************************

"Hello?" A voice coming through the phone questioned.

"Hello," I responded, "who is this?"

"Hey, you called me first!" The women joked. The voice was different from how I remembered it, but I would still recognize it anywhere.

"Ella, this is your sister, Max"

"Max! Max? Are you alright? Are you hurt? Where have you been? How is Nina?" Ella sounded frantic. In the background I could hear her calling to others.

"I'm fine," I replied. To say I was relieved that my life hadn't been a dream would be like saying that Hitler didn't get along well with others. "Who is Nina? And where are you?"

I heard Ella put her hand over the phone and whisper to the rest of the room, "She is asking who Nina is." There was dead silence for a minute.

"Hello, Max?" A new voice came through. Like Ella's, the voice was changed. It sounded older, but I still recognized it.

"Fang, Fang, you're there? Is the rest of the flock there? Are you all okay? Where are you?" Finally things were falling back into normality. Just knowing that Fang and my flock were all right made me feel lighter.

"Max, are you sure you don't remember Nina?" Fang asked slowly, as if he was afraid of my answer.

"Yes I'm sure. I've met a lot of people, and I don't usually keep tabs on them unless they are trying to kill me."

"Do you remember Olli?"

"No."

"How 'bout Occi?"

I started explaining everything that had happened to me, starting with the lab. He stopped me before I even got to the girl in question.

"Your hair is black?"

"Yeah I know weird, right?"

I heard mumbling come from his side of the phone.

"Max," he said the name in a very strange way. "Is there a scar on your right elbow?"

"Yes."

"You don't remember Nina?"

"No."

I heard a lot of confusion on Fang's side of the phone. Eventually everything was sorted out and Fang came back on. He gave me the directions to an island and told me to meet him there. Before he hung up he asked one last question.

"Do you remember Angel?"

"Yes, why wouldn't I?"

"Hurry," he said. With that there was a click and the line went dead.

**Have a question, comment or complaint? Please let me know!**


	6. Chapter 6

"On the road again, can't wait to be on the road again," I muttered to myself, attempting to fill the void where Gazzy should be. You know your day has gone down the drain when you _miss_ the Gasser's singing.

The island Fang had mentioned turned out to be a little scrap of land off the coast of Maine. And who ever lived there was rich! I could see the bright red bricks of the huge house from a mile away. Little swans were sleeping at the far shore, and bright yellow crabs ran around on white rocks that had been polished by the sea. The sun was rising over blue waves, sending gold rays shimmering across a large speed boat. I felt like I would hurl.

How long had Fang been crashing in the mansion? How could he stand it here? It was way too... pretty? Peaceful? Lacking in mutants trying to kill you? It didn't really matter though; we could only stay here until the islands residents came home.

I resisted my strong urge to kick the head off of a garden gnome, and walked up to the house to ring the doorbell. I was surprised the flock didn't answer right away; they were all light sleepers. Maybe they thought I might be a white coat. As it was it took a full minute for the door to be thrust open. When it finally was the first thing I saw was a boy of about thirteen with dark brown hair that fell over light blue eyes.

"Hey everyone!" He yelled into the house. "She's here, come quick! She's back!" He turned back to me, a huge grin across his face, then hugged me so hard I thought I might pop.

I shook him off me and gave him a look that I usually reserve for a worm on the bottom of an eraser's shoe. I could hear footsteps running down the hall. My flock. They had better have an explanation for the mystery hugger.

I stepped into the house and saw mom running towards me through a badly lit living room. What was she doing here? When she got close I noticed she looked different. Her hair was lighter, and her face seemed to be more angled. With a start I realized it wasn't my mom at all. It was an older version of my younger sister.

"Nina!" Ella shrieked. She ran over to me, in the same motion pulling me into her arms. A stampeding sound coming from above was all the warning I had before older versions of Nudge Fang jumped over the balcony, fluttering their wings so they didn't hit the ground too hard. I only had time to process that Fang must be, like, **_40 _**when my mom came hobbling down the stairs and Iggy came running through the living room towards us.

Among all the shouting I didn't actually hear much, but I could tell that the names Max and Nina were being repeated over and over. The shock of everyone being so old was enough to keep me paralyzed while being passed from person to person, each one hugging and questioning. People like my mom (who must be somewhere around 60), Nudge, and Ella were crying with joy. Even Fang had a huge grin across his face.

"Stop!" I screeched at the top of my voice. Once they went silent I softened my tone. "What is going on here?" They all looked at each other, and I could actually hear crickets chirping outside.

"We should be asking you that." Mystery Hugger spoke up. "Nina, where have you been? We've been trying to find you for five years. What happened?"

"First off, I'm not Nina, I'm Max. Remember, I told you my appearance had been changed? Secondly, who is Nina?"

Fang stepped forward. "Nina," he began, "is Max's daughter."


	7. Chapter 7

_Nina is Max's daughter_.

A day ago I would have interpreted that as "Nina is my daughter," but because of everything that had happened since then the sentence also seemed to read "I am Max's daughter."

But that's not right. I am Max. It doesn't matter what I look like, I have been Max for fifteen years. What was Fang talking about? Why was he so old – no. Occi's book, the fancy gadgets that I didn't recognize in the lab, my flocks age. That couldn't _all_ be faked by scientists. Fang was supposed to be old. Why hadn't _I_ aged in 26 years?

Everybody was looking at me strangely, almost with concern. I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror across the hall. My black hair was disheveled and my mouth was hanging slightly ajar. On eye was open in astonishment and confusion, and the other was narrowed with apprehension.

The fact that I didn't recognize my own face sent a swell of anger rising inside me. I turned back to Fang.

"I am Maximum Ride." I growled. "And I don't have a daughter." Everyone stared at me, and I glared back at them. The boy that was a little younger than me spoke up.

"So let me get this straight. You think you are the 40 year old Maximum Ride, you just happen to look exactly like your own daughter, and you have no memory of Nina's life, or the past 26 years of your own?"

"I'm 40? That's news to me."

"No. You are fifteen. Your mom is 40."

"Who **_are_** you?" I spat back.

"Olli. You should remember that, saying as you are my cousin and you think you are my aunt."

Ella stepped between us like a referee and I got the feeling that she had done this before. Olli turned to her.

"Mom, this is Nina. I know it. But she is Aunt Max too. She doesn't remember everything though, and I bet it's the school's fault." A look of horror crossed his eyes, and he turned to Iggy. "Dad! She doesn't know about Occi! She doesn't remember Angel!" Ella took the boy into her arms and looked at me as if I was a ticking bomb.

_Mom?_ I looked at my sister, then towards Iggy. _Dad?_ I sent my gaze back to Olli. Ella had married Iggy, and Olli was there son. Wait. Ella, Iggy, and Olli? I began chuckling, my laughter was a little closer to hysteria then I would have liked, but it was still laughter. Olli seemed to be able to guess where my train of thought had led me.

"Yeah I know." Olli smirked, and it pained me to recognize Iggy's smile and eyes and Ella's dark brown hair. "Iggy, Ella, Olli and Occi. What were they thinking? He cast a glance towards his parents, not seeming to notice that their expressions had turned pained when he had said the last name.

Wait.

My conversation with Occi seemed to spring to mind. She had said she had a twin brother. If she was my- _Nina's_ cousin, why wasn't she here with the rest? Why was she at that lab?

"Why isn't your twin here with you?" I asked Olli. He gave me an odd look.

"How did you know she's my twin?"

"She is the one that gave me the cell phone to call here." I gave my cousin / nephew a concerned look. He had suddenly gone pale.

"Where did you see her? Is she nearby? Did she say she is coming home?"

"Yes, sort of, and no."

"You don't remember her at all do you?"

"I saw her, like, five hours ago, my memory isn't that bad. She is probably pretty far away by now, though. She took Celeste and flew off pretty fast." As I finished I noticed that the entire room was gawking questioningly at me. Nudge broke the silence, and then shattered it to smithereens.

"SHE CAN FLY?! Holy granola, she might come back now! Unless she wants to stay at her home, which she shouldn't, cuz this place really is where she should be, and she knows it. Or does she? She just couldn't take it here because she didn't fly, but now that she can it wouldn't make her sad to be around here. What if she is still with that lab? What if she is still living with whats-her-face? Or maybe she isn't? How long has she had full wings? Maybe once she got them she went off -"

I chose this moment to interrupt and began telling the story of what had happened to me. I started with flying to my mom's place and covered everything except the exact amount of milkshake I ingested. Once I finished I looked up towards Ella.

"Now that that is done, I want you to tell me what is up with Occi."

**Did you know there is such a thing as a review faerie? That's right, if you review, in the middle of the night a faerie will sneak into your house leave an invisible mulberry pie under your pillow!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A big thank you to sILINCEmAXIMUMdARKO, Bedelato, Kiliro, StephanieZorander**,** and 11Twilightcrazy for reviewing!**

Ella looked away from me, biting her lower lip. It seemed as if words actually pained her.

"It was alright until what happened with A-" Ella stopped talking then started again. "Olli and Occi aren't like you or your mom or dad. They are half human. Olli, for some reason was alright. He had full wings and could fly. He even had his own power. Occi couldn't fly, but she couldn't be human either. It was as if each of her wings had been torn in half. I was always afraid to let her go to boarding school with Olli. She always wanted to, but if someone saw what she had of wings, they would know she was different without her being able to fly away." It looked as if she was going to burst into tears, so I changed the subject.

"You have a power?" I directed the question towards Olli.

"Ya. It's not the one I would have chosen, but ya. I can remember everything, even from when I was a little baby. It's useful for things like tests at school, but there are so many things I wish I could forget." He glanced towards his mom. She looked like she would rather be brushing a lions teeth, but motioned for him to continue. "I actually have another power." Olli continued, "Occi and I can share pain and emotion. When I got hurt she could take half the pain, and visa versa. If I needed confidence, she would lend me some of hers. But we had to be near each other for it to work. The power has been useless for fi- seven years."

"What happened to her? Did she leave or was she taken?" I asked Ella, but Iggy answered.

"She left. After what happened at the lab everybody was devastated, but everyone reacted differently. Nudge went to California and started working for a fashion magazine. Gazzy went to New York to design bombs for the government. When you turned five Max started taking you on trips. Sometimes you would go away for a month at a time, sometimes Fang would go with you. She would usually take you to places where people needed help. Occi was so jealous, she would have given anything to be able to fly and have adventures like you. When you were eight and Occi was six, she ran away. You and Max found her about a year later. She had been doing a great job taking care of herself. Max tried to get her to come back, with no luck. Later that day you snuck away from your mom and tried to convince her yourself. That's how you got that scar on your arm."

I glanced at the pink line running from the side of my shoulder to just above my elbow. Most people try to cover up scars, but I consider them a sort of badge of honor, like "I went there, did that, and got an injury to remember it by, since I apparently cannot remember anything on my own."

"Does anyone have a theory on what might have happened that doesn't revolve around me being my own daughter?" No one seemed to mind me changing the subject.

Iggy reached for my hand, and out of instinct I pulled it away, glaring up at him. Oh. Right. I held out my arm and let him carefully feel my finger prints.

"You're Nina." He stated, and I felt my stomach do a not-so-pleasant plummeting thing.

"So if I am Nina where am I- I mean Ma- I mean mom?"

Fang responded. "You and Max went on a trip and never came back. We've looked for you for five years, with no success. This is the first we've heard from you. We don't know where Max is."

"Occi said that I - uh - _Max_ gave her Celeste?"

Fang just nodded. Some things never change.

"Why didn't Angel give Occi the bear herself?"

"She left it to _Max_."

"Left it?" I had been assuming that Angel was with Gazzy in New York. 'Left it' made it sound like she had written it in a will. "Where is Angel?"

Instead of responding, everyone oh-so helpfully stared at me.

"Someone tell me where my little girl is!" I half screamed at them. Everyone exchanged an ominous glance, and then Olli backed up a few feet and opened the front door.

He led us around the side of the house, following a small worn trail. It was clear after a minute that he was heading for a large tree with strawberry bushes around it. As we approached I noticed a statue at the base.

There was a slab of concrete about the size of a large laptop laying flat on the ground. On top of it in the corner was a kneeling girl with a pair of wings out behind her. She had her head angled down and her arms wrapped around her as if she was crying. The rest of the stone had words engraved on it.

**Angel**

**2003 – May 21, 2024**

**"I deserve to rest. It's been a long, hard day."**

This was a gravestone… This was _Angel's_ gravestone. My brain went whirring, and it felt as if it took centuries for me to process what _must_ have happened. She had died. Angel was dead. She had died eleven years ago, and I had found out about it today.

I fell to my knees and covered my face with my hands, letting out sobs that tore up my throat. Fang sat down next to me and draped his arm across my shoulder. He was acting like a _dad. _I tried to stop crying, but gave up when I realized there was no reason for me to. I wasn't a leader any more; I didn't have to be an example.

Eventually my cries gave way to coughs, and then I was just sitting there, holding my knees to my chest with my family around and below me.

"How did she die?" I spluttered.

And no one answered. Again. Was it not enough to have your reality taken from you? To have a new past given to who you are? To learn that a child you practically raised as your own died over a _decade_ ago? Now my friends wouldn't even answer my questions. What, did they think they could make my day worse?

"**_How did she DIE_**?" I shrieked at them.

There was a sickening silence, then, after a minute Fang answered.

"Max killed her."


	9. Chapter 9

"No I didn't!" It was the first thing that came to mind, thus the first thing I said. I knew who I thought I was, and I / Max would have never killed Angel.

"She turned us in," Iggy continued talking for Fang. "She gave us to the School, and in return they took away her expiration date. The expiration date isn't triggered by DNA unraveling. It's a poison. The school gives experiments a very small dose. It kills them over time. Our powers were caused by the poison hitting different points in us. Jeb eventually cured each one of us. He had snuck a little from the lab and injected into us when we were sleeping. Angel was too little for it though. She was too young to have the poison and the antidote fight within her. Jeb left before she was ever cured. That's why she had the most powers."

I tried not to focus on how he put Angel in past tense. "Why does Olli have powers, if they are caused by the poison?" I asked.

"The poison changes us on a genetic level," Iggy explained. "That's why you, Occi, and Olli have them. Your parent's genes were changed."

"I have a power?"

Iggy smirked. "What is the weather going to be like tomorrow?" He asked.

"Fairly sunny, fairly warm. A little windy." I responded instantly. "Oh. I can predict the weather." It was better than a jab in the eye, but not quite as useful as my old super speedy flying. "How do you know about poison?" I asked.

"Jeb told us." Iggy replied crisply. Something was off about his tone, he was 26 years older, but I could still tell.

"What about Jeb?"

"It's nothing, it's just – just he died. That's all."

"That's not nothing." Despite that he had been a backstabbing traitor I felt a sort of pang. He was my dad, er, _grandfather_.

"He let us out of the cages at the school. After that you, Fang, Gazzy, and Max went to find Angel, to try to reason with her. Jeb, Nudge, and I left with Occi and Olli. We got into a fight on the way out. He died saving Occi. He took a bullet for her."

I glanced at Olli, and the grimace on his face told me he remembered it, despite that he was three when it happened. No wonder he didn't love his power.

Iggy continued. "Besides that we all escaped safely. I didn't witness what happened with you guys and Angel, but I've heard enough about it. Angel tried to mind control Max to kill you. She didn't like that. There was a fight, and like with Ari, Max didn't completely mean to kill anyone. She took Celeste from Angel's office, and gave it to Occi."

For a minute I wondered why she didn't give it to me. But deep down I knew. If I had killed Angel I wouldn't want something that reminded me of her so close.

Suddenly I realized how tired I was. It wasn't just that I had been up all night; sleep just seemed to be an easier alternative to trying to process everything that had happened. Fang seemed to be able to read my expression.

I clumsily got to my feet and brushed away a few stray tears. Fang held my shoulder, and both of us sent a glance back at Angel's grave before heading inside.

I was led up a flight of stairs, then into a medium sized room. On the far wall above a window were wooden letters colorfully painted with stripes and dots. They spelled out **Nina's Room**.

"This is your room," Fang muttered awkwardly and redundantly, then stepped outside and shut the door.

I looked around. On the wall to my right was a long desk and a bookshelf. To the left was a dresser that I assumed to be full of clothes. A bed with a red quilt over it was pushed against the back wall. Little origami cranes had been hung from the ceiling on fishing line. Above the desk a sun fish a little smaller than my hand was mounted to the wall. **My First Fish** was written below it.

I sat down on the bed and tried to think, not through my memories. I tried to completely block out the past, and think solely with my mind.

I went over to the desk and pulled out the bottom drawer, grabbing all the junk inside and throwing it onto the ground. With my fingernails I pried out the fake bottom that I knew would be there.

It wasn't like I remembered putting it there. I had Nina's mind, not Max's. I only had Max's memories, so when I asked myself where I would hide something, I got Nina's response.

Below the board was a little book. It was titled **The Wizard of Oz**, but I wasn't fooled. Sure enough, when I opened it the pages were filled with slanted hand writing. I could tell that the pages to The Wizard of Oz had been taken out, and blank ones had been hot glued in.

I flipped through it. There were stories of adventures my mom and I shared, tales about my fishing expeditions with dad, games I played with Occi and Olli, and times Aunt Ella and I would curl up by the fire place and read. Angel and Jeb were never mentioned.

I thought about it and knew that I wouldn't put my deepest thoughts with stories about my pet fish. I also knew that I would have written them down somewhere.

I searched the room, checking above the curtains, under the bed, the books on the shelf, a hidden board that might come up beneath the light blue carpeting. I searched between the clothes in the dresser and behind the painting I must have made in school that were hanging on the wall.

Finally I just lied down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. And I saw the cranes. I pulled the chair out from the desk and stood up on it. Carefully, I took down bird made out of light green paper, cut the line binding it to the ceiling, and unfolded it.

_Mom and I went on another trip. As usual, we were searching for Occi, and we finally found her. I had always thought that she got lost, that she had been trying to come back the whole time. But she was fine, and happy. She didn't want to come with us. Mom tried to tell her she had to, but of course it didn't work. I tried to convince her later. I told her I missed her. We had never gotten along that well but I still wished she was there. She didn't believe me. I told her that her parents missed her. I told her about Olli. How he would cry. I thought she might have been swayed. But instead she punched me. We got into a fight, and in the end she took out a pocket knife and my arm got in the way. Sometimes it still bleeds if I move it too much._

_Occi is really gone. She doesn't want anything to do with us. Was it not enough to lose Aunt Angel? Then Grandpa? I miss them both so much. Katy says they went to Heaven. Whenever I ask mom about it she says she is not sure. Katy had told me that Total hadn't gone to Heaven because he is a dog. Does that mean I can't go, cuz I am part animal too?_

I put down the paper. According to the other diary, Katy was a friend of mine from boarding school. Did she miss me? Had she forgotten me? There were so many things I didn't know about my own life. I curled up on the bed, and tried to remember yesterday, when I hadn't even heard of Nina.

**Next chapter won't be from Nina's point of view. A virtual bunny goes to who ever can guess what will happen! **

**Pls review!**


	10. Chapter 10

Olli's POV

Although I would never ever admit it to anyone, my foremost thought when I saw Nina for the first time in five years was that I was going to have to start sharing the TV again. Of course after that the rush of joy hit me, which was closely followed by a wave of confusion, and then… well… more confusion. I mean, she thought she was my _aunt_.

That of course led to the question of where Max really was. The anxious looks Mom, Dad, Aunt Nudge, Grandma, Uncle Fang and I were sending each other all said the same thing. Aunt Max would have never let Nina out of her sight if it could in any way be avoided.

"What are supposed to do?" Mom questioned, breaking the silence. "How can we explain her life to her? What will we do about Max? Should we try to find Occi again?"

We all looked at each other. Without an answer ever being decided upon, we one by one headed off to bed.

Unlike the others who had five years clouding their memories of Nina, I could remember her perfectly. Heck, I could remember when I saw her the first day I opened my eyes. She had been had been one year old, and had already decided on the fashion she would adopt for the rest of her life. Pigtails, a bandana, jeans, and a T-shirt. It was almost a bigger shock to see my cousin with her hair down then it was to find out that she thought she was Max.

The next day alternated very quickly between stretches of awkward silence and everyone trying to talk at once. Except for that, we attempted to keep things normal; let Nina see what a usual day in her life used to be.

I gave her a tour of her own house, showed her how to fish, and how to catch crabs. I told her that her birthday was June 2nd and that her favorite color was green. I showed her how to fly surf (a sport that requires spreading out your wings while wakeboarding) and where we had little floating platforms in the ocean so that you could take a break on the long flight back to the shores of Maine. We played video games, and I answered all her questions about Max's life. Every now and then I would turn around and she would be gone. After about the third time she pulled a Houdini I discovered she had been going to Angel's grave.

It was just before bedtime that we learned something else about what happened to Nina before she arrived here. She had woken up at a lab that was nearly burnt to the ground. Dad, Uncle Fang, and I had been at that lab two days ago.

We had, as usual, been going around to different ITEX schools in search of anything we could find out about Nina and Max. We hadn't exactly entered under the most legal terms, and when we were found Dad rigged up a smoke/explosion thing to keep them distracted. We hadn't meant for the bomb to set the building on fire. After that we left in a hurry.

* * *

Nina and I were at the bottom of the stairs, and had been talking about Max's wedding when Nina stopped the conversation and held out her fist. I had seen Max do this before so I was able to play along, stacking my hand on top of hers. The scene froze for what seemed like hours, and then Nina broke the silence.

"I used to be a leader." She looked up at me, her eyes wet at the corners. "I used to have a sister, and a boyfriend. I used to have a little girl I would have died for. But I never really had any of that." She shuddered and paused for a minute before going on. "It was all someone else's. My sister and boyfriend are my aunt and my dad. My little girl is a corpse."

In a whoosh of black hair she pulled her fist out from under mine, turned around, and half flew, half ran up the stairs and into her room. I sighed and followed suit, trudging up the stairs to my room.

When my mom had received that phone call from Nina and shouted, "It's her!" I had completely convinced myself that it _must _be Occi, that she must _finally_ be coming home. The fact that it was Nina was a disappointment.

I hadn't seen Occi in a bit less than five years. Unlike the rest, I had known she could fly for a long time. She hadn't told me how she had acquired full wings, but I hadn't really cared. She had come to me for help. The wings weren't natural, and they hurt her so much. She came to beg me to take some of the pain. She couldn't stand it. And she told me never to tell the others, and she knew I wouldn't.

I had always been the careful one, the one that wouldn't do something until all the outcomes had been considered and not a single one was bad. Occi was the strong one, The one who had the courage to make the hard decisions. She had so much courage, she would lend me some. And in return, I would give her some of my collectedness, my logic, and my level headedness.

Nina and Occi were just family. Deep down they loved each other. On the surface – not so much. Since I was good friends with Nina and Occi, I had always served as the peace keeper.

Nina had been too wild for Occi. Nina would act on a whim, usually dragging me with her. To anyone that didn't know her she would seem reckless, and they would put it up to luck that she never got in trouble. The truth was that she was just very skilled at avoiding problems. She knew where the line was, and would run right up to it. I usually liked to keep my distance from it.

But that Nina was gone. As much as she had given me a headache, I sort of missed her. The new Nina was too level headed.

My room was covered with shelves, most of which I had made myself. Many of the books on them were worn and tattered, and then others like A Guide to Geometry were in mint condition. I didn't have a bed so much as a large bean bag chair. There was something about how nest-like it was that made it comfortable. There was a large quilt spread across it that my grandma on dad's side had given me. Dad had decided to tell his parents that they were grandparents when Occi and I were two. They had given Occi a heart shaped pillow that she carried around for the next four years. Celeste was the only thing she took with her when she left.

With everything that had happened, I was somehow still able to fall asleep. At least for a little while. The second I awoke I knew something wasn't right. There was a tug in my mind, an asking for permission. And the second I complied, a wave pain hit me. It felt like a small crack had appeared in the side of my head, trailing its way down and behind my ear. And I felt some of my calmness sucked from me, replaced by confidence. You might not think that there is that big a difference between calm and confidence, but to me there was.

When I heard tapping at my window, I wasn't even surprised.

* * *

I hastily tugged the screen out of the frame and pulled the curtains aside, helping Occi inside while we both held the same points on our heads in pain. I sat her down next to me on a small couch in the corner.

"Why couldn't you have used the front door?" I whispered angrily at her. "I'm tired of keeping your secrets." I felt the calm she had taken from me return, and the glare in my eyes softened.

"I'll come through a door tomorrow. I just h-had some things I wanted to tell you. Or, at least I wanted you to be the first to know. You still don't know how I got my wings." She took a deep breath and I prepared for a flash back.

"When I was eight I had been having some trouble surviving on my own. I was so desperate, I asked for help. And a lady took me in. At first it was just for a meal. Then a day. Then a month. After six months I told her what I was, and she told me what she did for a living. Laura was a white coat. After another six months, she was able to pull some strings and get me some wings." Occi pulled out a wing and reached back, peeling off a delicate layer of a sort of rubber, like what they had used to cover fly boys. The base of her wing was flesh, but more than half was made of metal.

"It was about two years after that that Laura came home sobbing." Occi continued, "She couldn't tell me exactly what had happened since it was classified, but she explained a little. She had always said she only worked with the school because there was no legal way to really work with the mind. It was the most interesting thing to her, especially memory. She had told me she had been working on a new experiment, a way of taking memory form one being to another. The lab had given her a subject to test it on, but they hadn't told her it wasn't human. So she didn't know their brains were different. She was crying because she accidently killed the subject she took the memories from."

I attempted to interrupt, but Occi talked over me. "Has Nina told you everything?" I nodded, and she went on. "I had been helping out at the lab after school when it started burning. I flew Laura out of there, and had gone back for others when something – probably the ceiling – knocked me unconscious. Next thing I know I see a girl flying above me. I didn't recognize her as Nina. After I ditched her and left her with the cell phone, I went back for Laura. She needed to go to the hospital. I would have come here sooner, but I needed to wait for her to wake up."

Occi looked around, and rubbed her throat for a minute before returning to her speech. "Laura told me everything about the experiment. It had been Max she had killed. It is Nina that has her memories. At first she was only able to get the memories to transport in real time. Five years would give someone five years of someone else's memories. I'm not sure how it works, but she found that if the people are related she can triple it. Nina was at the lab for five years. She has fifteen years of Max's memories."

I hardly heard the end of her speech. I was still caught up on Max being dead. I wished that I didn't feel the honesty that she was offering to me. I tried to talk, but again was shushed.

"There is more. And you can't tell this to anyone. I will tell everyone else about Max, but this is secret." She lowered her voice. "I developed a new power about a year ago. Until recently I didn't understand it. I sort of just knew how I was going to die. I could see a person in my mind, but I couldn't see her clearly. It was like someone had described her to me, but I couldn't quite picture her. And I knew she was going kill me. When I saw Nina at the lab, I knew she was the one. When I die, it will be her fault." Occi sprung off the couch and was halfway out the window in a second. "Don't tell anyone." She whispered earnestly, then jumped backwards and flew away.

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**I am going on vacation tomorrow, but I will still try to update soon!**

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	11. Chapter 11

**I'm back! New York was fun, but I am glad to have internet connection again. Here is the next chapter! Please enjoy and review!**

**Speakin' of reviews, a big TY goes to Kiliro, VenomShadowCatt, and 11twilightcrazy.**

Nina's POV

From the top of the stairs you could see practically everything that happened in the whole house. If you looked down and to your left you could see the living room, and (unless the doors were closed) into the downstairs bathroom and Ella and Iggy's room. You couldn't see the entire kitchen because of a wall, but you could see most of it through the doorway.

The stairs had no backing, so you could look through the steps into a sort of study. There were two bookcases, one full of hard leather bound novels and the other covered with maps, stacks of papers, and photographs. The one with the maps contained all the research on where Max, Occi, and I may be.

The desk next to the window had a fancy computer like thing on one side, and a stack of seven books on the other. Olli had shown me the books earlier. Apparently they were written by Max. I already knew everything that happened in the first five books, but the last two were interesting to read. It was sort of like seeing the future.

The upstairs hallway curled forward on the right and left, and doors lined the maroon colored walls. My room was at the head of the stairs, and Olli's was to the right of mine, Occi's to the right of his. Next to her room was a guest room Nudge was using.

Fang's room was the farthest to the left, a guest room for Gazzy on the right of it, followed by my grandma's room, and the upstairs bathroom.

I had been spending the twenty minutes I had been out of bed watching Iggy and Ella make breakfast. They were too busy cooking to realize I was awake, and they thought the fabulous feast they were preparing would be a surprise for me when I woke up.

I am sure it was a complete coincidence that I happened to feel the need for fresh air at the same time that Ella called Iggy "her Blindy Bear," and he replied to his "Ellakins."

There was a platform directly above me, suspended a few feet below the ceiling by thick ropes. A few good wing strokes got me to a comfortable perch on the edge of the ledge. Above me I flicked aside a little latch, pushed up on a sort of door, pulling myself up and onto the roof.

The wind ruffled my feathers, and I closed my eyes, pretending that the hair that blew in my face wasn't black. My hearing, which was as good as Max's, if not better, picked up loud footfalls in front of the house, and out of curiosity I cracked my eyes open.

Occi's face was hard and stiff - a side effect of years of trying to hide her emotions. She strode confidently towards the front door, and despite that her expression was cool and collected I could tell by the way her feet kicked at the ground and how her fingers picked at the hem of her sweater that her anxiety was barely concealed.

Without even a falter in her step she swung open the door and walked inside.

"I'm home!" she shouted, and I heard Ella's intake of breath from outside.

"Occi!" Iggy shouted. I leaned over the edge of the roof so that I could see through the window, and watched as Iggy ran across the room and pulled her into a hug, lifting her off the ground.

After a second Iggy let his daughter down, and he stared at his own hand. A small line of blood had formed across his palm, dripping red onto the white carpet. Occi stared at him, and I could tell she was angry at herself for letting it happen.

"Sorry," she muttered, and at the same time I noticed that Ella was heading upstairs to wake the others.

Crud.

I pulled my head up, and I felt the blood behind my ears pound. After a running start I jumped into the air and flew behind the house in seconds.

The window didn't open willingly, but I was able to get it wide enough to squeeze through. I was halfway inside when Ella opened the door.

"Hey sis," I said cheerily, attempting to both pretend that I had no idea why she was here, and that having a wing and a leg out a window was a completely natural position. "Er, _Aunt_. Tomato, tomahto, right?"

For a second she gave me a questioning look, but she quickly came to the conclusion that what she had to say trumped whatever I had been up to in importance.

"Occi is here! She's back!" She shouted, and as soon as the words were out of her mouth she was out of my room and down the hall.

The sound of Ella exclaiming over Occi carried to me from Nudge's room. They were all so _happy_. Did they forget that she had disappeared for over seven years? How about that she had not only stabbed me when I was eight, but tried to kill me just _two_ day ago?

Inadvertently I had been walking out of my room and down the stairs. Iggy, with a band-aid on his hand, was talking to Occi elatedly. Olli was standing off to the side, looking a little wary but still smiling. When he saw me his grin faltered, and he looked almost… _scared_. If the expression had ever been there, it was gone a second later.

Occi sent a quick look at me, bit her teeth down into a forced smile, bowed her head a little, and then turned back to her dad and brother.

With the exception of me standing awkwardly in the corner, the entire thing reminded me fairly vividly of when I had first come to the island. Everyone was smiling and hugging, but at the same time wary and cautious.

After a few minutes Occi called everyone to silence.

"There is something I've got to tell you guys." She looked morosely around the room, eyes resting on me for a minute. "A while after I left a lady took me in to live with her. I learned later that she was a white coat. She was the one that gave me my wings, and she did the experiment that gave Nina Max's memories. I didn't know it at the time, but during the operation Max was killed. Laura feels terrible about it. She didn't mean for Max to die."

For a minute there was silence. Everyone just stared blankly at Occi, waiting for her to laugh and say "just kidding!" As her expression turned from apprehensive to concerned, we seemed to all realize at the same time that she meant what she said.

"No." Fang came forward and took Occi by the shoulders. "It isn't true. You're lying." Fang was practically shouting. Occi refused to make eye contact with him. It felt like I was watching it all through binoculars. They were all so far away. Max couldn't be dead.

It felt like Nudge, Ella, and my grandma's sobs were far in the distance. I faintly heard Fang and Iggy shouting at each other, Fang steadfast to his belief that Occi was lying.

"She is dead! She is dead!" Iggy shouted tactlessly back at him, more trying to convince himself than anyone else. Occi stood off in the corner, and I watched Olli walk slowly over to her and put an arm over her shoulders.

She sighed, looking around at the mayhem her news had brought. She shook her head and turned away from it, walking up to her room. I don't know why I followed her. Maybe it was just to get away from that one painful thought that the Max part of me had. The old me was glad that after five years of Max being MIA, Fang would still not accept her death as a possibility.

On the other hand, my mom was dead.

Occi walked sternly into her room, Olli at her heels. I jumped inside right before the door was slammed behind me. It was obvious the room had not been altered since the six year old Occi had left. The bed in the corner was made out of wood and covered in a substantial layer of glitter. There were several fuzzy, dust covered, purple blankets balled up in the center.

In the corner were a few stuffed animals. A parrot and a crab were carefully set atop a blue pillow in the shape of a heart. To the side there was a unicorn and a giraffe.

There was a minute where we all just awkwardly stared at each other, listening to the muffled sounds from downstairs. Eventually I sat down on a pink foot rest by the door. Occi seemed to sit as far from me as she could, and Olli sat next to her.

"How long has she been dead?" I broke the silence.

"Five years." She replied curtly, looking pointedly at her feet.

"Do you know anything, any details about it?"

"She had been at her old home in Colorado. She was showing it to you. They found her, and brought both of you to the lab. As far as I know, it was quick. She died during the surgery. No one had told Laura that the bird DNA had affected the layout of your brains. It's a miracle you didn't die too. "

In a second I changed courses. "Did you know Angel?"

She squinted her eyes, trying to remember. "Not well. That's more Olli's area of expertise. I remember her shape shifting for me. It beat peek-a-boo royally. That's really all I can remember." She paused for a minute, but when I opened my mouth to talk she seemed to predict what I was going to say. "My only decent memory of Max was when she flew us to a park in Maine. That's all."

A wave of homesickness hit me. "Do you have Celeste with you?" I questioned more out of wanting to be talking as opposed to thinking, then out of genuine curiosity. She nodded understandingly and reached into her bag. Was this the same girl that had started screaming about killing herself in a fast food joint?

When she pulled out the "white" bear Olli reached to take it, obviously with the intention of handing it to me.

"It's fine" She muttered attempting to duck past him. He grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back.

"How can you act so calm? How can you just walk towards her?" He was angry at her, trying to pull the bear out of her hands.

"I can't do anything about it. God knows when the time comes I will fight, but am I supposed to look around every corner until I get there?" She had either absorbed some of Olli's irritation or found some of her own.

"YES! The longer you check the corners, the longer you have!" He shouted back

Occi jerked the bear out of his hands and took the step that cleared the distance between us.

"Look, I went _all the way over here_ and I am still alive to tell the tale! Things happen when they happen, and because you know how they will occur doesn't mean you can prevent it. Stop trying to win the argument, I know I'm right." She stepped in my direction, intent on handing me the stuffed animal. Olli lurched forward, his expression beseeching her.

"Fine!" she shouted, her shriek mixing with the yelling still coming from downstairs. She stomped towards the door and tossed the bear towards Olli. In the same few seconds, Occi had slammed the door behind her, and Olli stepped forward to catch Celeste.

The angel bear flew above his head, and he flung up a hand, catching it by the foot. His hand wrapped around it and I heard a small crack. An instant later a blue liquid appeared, soaking through the cloth, dripping between his fingers, and running down his arm.

**Gasp! Didn't see that coming! **

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	12. Chapter 12

I jumped backwards, which failed horribly, since I had been sitting down with my back to the wall. Olli lowered Celeste, and the blue liquid continued to drip from her foot and onto the white carpeting.

He said a few choice words, dropped the bear, and ran out of the room, returning a minute later with a wad of paper towels that he used to wipe the liquid off himself and soak it up off the floor. He left the room to throw the paper out, and returned with a pair of scissors.

"May I?" He held up the bear and I nodded.

"Don't cut more than you have to." I said, sounding a lot less confused than I was.

It took him a minute, but eventually he extracted a few shards of glass that clearly had once made up a vial. Had the jar always been concealed in the bear? From way back when Angel "bought" it? Had Max hidden it before she died? Had one of the flock put it there? Had I?

I realized that Olli was cutting along the seam of the bear starting at the other foot and working his way up to the head. He shoved his fingers into the stuffing, and a second later extracted another vial from the left paw.

We both stared at it, trying to figure out what it meant. A tablespoon of a thick, dark red liquid splashed around inside. I searched my brain, trying to remember. It felt as if Nina's memories were there, I just had no access to them. Did I know something about this?

I finally found myself able to move again, and I reached out, finding what I had thought to be miles between me and the bear was only an arm's length. I gingerly picked up Celeste and began picking pieces of dirty stuffing out of her, dropping them on the ground.

I burrowed my fingers into the head, and pulled out a thin tube. Olli finally stopped staring at the red bottle to look at the piece of paper rolled up in my palm. I didn't want to read it, so many different dead people could have written it. Besides, I didn't deserve to know what it said before everyone else.

Shakily, I made my way over to the door, Olli following behind. Outside the room the atmosphere wasn't much better. Fang and Iggy were in the kitchen, bottles of beer in hand. For a minute that shocked me, but of course deep down I knew they were old enough. 14 going on 40.

Ella was sitting on the couch, tears running down her face as she tried to console Nudge. The lady formerly known as "mom" was sitting stiffly beside her daughter, watching her sons in law argue aimlessly.

"This is ridiculous!" I shouted, glaring down at them all from the top of the balcony. How could they be so weak? What had I spent the years in Colorado training them for? For the moment all thoughts of the red vial and curled up note left my mind. I glared down at everyone, and they looked back up at me, startled. "I was Max for _fifteen_ year. I am more Max then I am this 'Nina' I've never met. I would die for all of you, not, Ella, cuz you're my Aunt, but because you're my _sister_. I am glad that I died fighting. I don't think I would have been able to stomach it if I was killed by some illness in a comfy bed, but even worse than that would be you guys crying like you are now! If any of you loved Max, know that she would want you to suck it up, and get on with your lives!"

None of them made eye contact with me, but something told me they had understood every word I said. I decided to take advantage of the silence. "And while I've got your attention, you might be interested to know the Celeste contained two hidden bottles of mystery juice and a letter. Any of you want to claim ownership?" No one answered, but I could have sworn Iggy muttered, "depends if there's money in the vials."

I unrolled the piece of paper, and weakly read it out loud, starting in the bottom right hand corner.

"May 19, 2024. Angel." I sighed, thinking of the six year old and the grave. After a moment's pause I began again, this time from the top.

"If you are reading this, I am dead. Wow, how is that for an opening sentence? No seriously, lose the gloom. In fact, consider me lucky! If I'm dead, I saved the world. I'm sure by now you have found those two little bottles I hid. Yes, it was worth dying for them. If you are white coats, you might as well stop reading. I'm not going to give anything away. However, if you're my friends, you are goin' to get real mad at me real soon. I can't straight out tell you what you want to know.

"And whoever killed me, don't feel bad. After I stole what I needed to from the lab I had to die. Otherwise they would suspect I set you free, and they would kill me. What the point in that be? This way, according to the school I die with a clean slate… unless you are white coats reading this right now…

"Back to me hoping you are the flock. I can't tell you what I stole, but I did tell one of you who you can ask for help. Ask her. Ask her about Breana. God I hate being so vague, but I have to. I love you all. Max, I couldn't have asked for a better parent. Gazzy, though I could have asked for a better brother, I wouldn't have wanted to. Why I am all talking in past tense?I still don't want to. Good bye."

Everyone stared at me, Occi appearing from behind my bedroom door.

Olli put a hand on my shoulder, and pulled me around to stare at him. He had a look about him, like he finally figured out the answer to a math problem from years ago.

"Nina," He asked, "What do you know about Breana?"


	13. Chapter 13

**I am sorry I took so long to update. Don't blame me… actually go ahead and blame me. What was I thinking? Four challenge classes? I must be out of my mind… If I wasn't back then, I am now.**

**Too much *melodramatic gasping for air* homework…**

**I do NOT own Maximum Ride. Take notes this time, I don't want to repeat myself and the test is Friday.**

Olli rolled his eyes is exasperation. "But of course you don't remember." He seethed between clenched teeth, "You're _Max_ now."

"I guess Angel didn't get the ability to see the future." I mumbled. No one heard me.

Occi was running her fingers through her hair, and almost smiling. Well, she wasn't frowning, and that's about as close as she ever seemed to get.

"What?" I snapped impatiently. The news that Angel was not evil wasn't enough to make up the fact that she wasn't alive. The whole thing made me bitter.

"It's just…. Breana isn't even real." Occi explained slowly. Sensing the coming downpour of questions, she hastened to explain. "It's a bedtime story Angel used to tell you. It's the only one she never told me or Olli. Something about Princess Breana and an arrow, I only remember the general theme." She looked towards her brother, and he shook his head.

"I never heard much. Why would I bother to? It was a story for a four year old, and about a _princess_." He shook his head, pinching his earlobe between his thumb and forefinger. "Nina, I think she meant for only you to remember it. If you had your memories you would, even if the thoughts were dulled by eleven years. She told it to you over and over. There is no way you wouldn't know at least the general plot."

For some reason this made me angry. Everything he said did. No matter what he was saying, he always seemed to be blaming me, mad at a crab that was forced into another one's shell. He missed Max, and he missed Nina. I wasn't a worthy substitute for either.

But it wasn't my fault. I couldn't be liable for my future self being careless enough to be killed, and letting her daughter's memories be taken away.

And the whole thing with those mystery bottles… If anything, that was Angel's fault.

"How could she be so stupid?" I sunk onto the top step of the hard wood stairs, looking down on the little people who used to be my friends. They hardly remembered me anymore. They barely cared that Angel had never been evil, had died innocent. They were too busy mourning Nina and Max.

"What do you mean?" Occi asked, suddenly beside me. I looked up at her, for a minute forgetting I had started the conversation.

"It's just that Angel should have had a plan. Why would she bet her life on something that might not work? What would she do if I was dead?" I eventually answered, never looking at her. It just didn't seem like Angel. Sure, when she was six she would suggest things like seeing if we could fly to the moon without freezing plum solid. But there was always that vibe, like she had thought of every possibility, knew what she would answer if I asked a question, knew how we would breathe, and what we would do to get past the atmosphere.

_Ask her. Ask her about Breana._

That's what she wrote, right? What if I had been dead? Were they supposed to ask a corpse?

Wait. _What if_ Nina had died? Where would they burry me?

"Olli," I asked, and Occi shut her mouth with a snap, slightly narrowing her eyes. It just then I realized she had been talking. Oh well. "If I – _Nina_, had um… kicked the bucket, where would I be buried?"

He looked at me sternly, eyes hard. "I don't know what they would say," He nodded his head towards his family," but they would probably agree that by the tree out back would be the best place. You loved that tree. You hated being on the ground more than Occi and I." He finished, and stood up on top of the balcony corner, reaching up and grabbing the suspended platform before pulling out his wings and easing up onto it.

None of the adults even realized we were leaving; they were huddled in a close circle, as if trying to take shelter from cold wind. Dull, dead names floated up to us.

A minute later I joined Olli on the roof, and when Occi crawled up through the trap door we made our way towards the tree by Angel's grave.

The branches looked soft and web like, the leaves a pointed oval. In seconds I had jumped towards it, wings spreading so I landed standing on a branch.

If there was a place Angel would hide a backup clue, this was not a bad spot. She had to have taken in the possibility of my death when she wrote that letter, and when she had, she still said to ask me who Breana was.

But no matter where I looked, no matter where I searched I couldn't find anything. The twins stood awkwardly off to the side as I painstakingly searched around the tree, checking nooks on the branches and digging down into the roots.

Eventually I began searching the strawberry bushes, working my way through the thorns to run my fingers through the grainy, sandy dirt. In the end I had to work my way back up the tree, too tired to bother flying.

Through the branches I saw Occi and Olli leaning against each other and watching the sun sink into the edge of the ocean, colors melting across the sky.

"Would you burry me here?" I looked around in a panic for the speaker, but realized it was only Occi. "If I die, please burry me here. It's really been the only home."

"Of course," Olli whispered.

Of course. Of course there had been no clue here. How would Angel have known she would have been buried here? How could she have known I would have come to love this tree? And what Occi said, struck the memory I needed.

Why hadn't Max buried Angel where she wanted to be? Was she too mad at her? Had she forgotten? I would never know. But if Angel had thought ahead at all, I knew where I could find the information I needed.

Flash Back

2007

Max sat up suddenly in bed, rubbing her eyes and listening to the still continuing scream coming from the room just down the hall. In a hurry she shoved the sheets aside, and went running, bare feet hitting the dusty carpeting with loud smacking sounds.

To turn the corner faster she held onto the edge of the door frame and kept going, propelling herself into the small room. Silence reverberated around the house, and Max saw that upon her entrance Angel had stopped shrieking.

Fang and Iggy appeared in the doorway behind her, but she shooed them back, and they went to their rooms without complaint. It was a wonder that Nudge and Gazzy were still asleep.

Angel had shoved herself as far back into her corner as she could go, twisting and untwisting the ears on a toy pig. Tears poured consistently down her face, and she made loud squeaks when she inhaled. Max was by her in a second, smoothing down her hair and asking what was wrong. It was a while before she would talk.

"They killed you all again," she sobbed into Max's shoulder. "The scientists came, 'n they told me that they were okay. 'N I believed them, 'n I let them come 'n stay. They said that wouldn't hurt you, they lied then they wouldn't leave. 'N I kept tellin em to, but they wouldn't." As each word went, the sound of her sucking in more air intensified. Eventually she was wailing, but Max took her to the kitchen, gave her a glass of water, and eventually she continued.

"They said they wouldn't hurt you, but every day a limb was gone, 'n you all said you were fine, 'n you didn't believe me 'bout the white coats. 'N eventually my arms started going missing too. Then I was all was left, and they ate me!" She was crying and clinging to Max's arm by the end.

"They ate you?" Max questioned, not sure of what else to say, and the blonde curls bounced as the five year old nodded. "It's okay, they won't come here. It was just a dream."

"NO!" The younger shrieked and let go of Max flinging herself into the couch. For five minutes she laid there crying, Max rubbing her between the wings. Eventually she sat up, and curled herself onto Max's lap, looking over her shoulder into the red Colorado canyon.

"If I die," Angel whispered slowly between sniffles. "If I die could you burry me in the canyon? 'N if anyone else dies, could you put them there too? I don't like cemeteries. Too many vampires. Could you put us here?"

"Of course." Max hugged the girl to her, and for a minute they were both quiet.

"Max?"

"Yes sweetie?"

"If you like cemeteries I would go there. No matter what, I don't wanna be alone."

"Neither do I. Canyons are fine."

**Well I completely messed up my homework schedule for you people. I hope you're happy. **


	14. Chapter 14

**I hate author's notes. I know I use them a lot, but I still hate them. I'm gonna try to get as much of it out of the way as possible, so since I think there are around three or four chapters left (including this one.)**

**1: I do not own Maximum Ride**

**2: I do not own Maximum Ride**

**3: I do not own Maximum Ride**

**4: I do not own Maximum Ride**

* * *

I decided to wait until morning to tell everyone I was leaving.

"Not for good," I hastily clarified, catching Ella's incredulous eye across the breakfast table. "I just think I might know where Angel hid a clue about the vials. I want to check it out. You guys are invited to come with me, if you want." I looked down the pale maple table and watched everyone exchange a look and simultaneously raise their eyebrows.

"I would like to come with you," Fang said slowly, "but Iggy, Nudge, and I promised Uncle Gazzy we would come and explain everything to him. We're taking off after breakfast." Iggy and Nudge nodded, and began to hastily shove food into their mouths.

I looked at my Aunt and Grandma, who both of whom shook their heads, Ella making flapping motions with her arms.

"We would only slow you down," Ella stated swiftly, then looked down the table to her two kids.

"No way," Olli said firmly. "I think I'll just stay here, thank you. There has been enough in the past few days." At even the slightest possible reference to Max everyone fell silent.

Eventually I noticed that Occi had started nodding.

"I'll go with you," she said in a high wavering voice.

Olli's eyes bugged out, but he said nothing, just glared at his sister. However a few hours later, when we were preparing to leave, he showed up with a packed back pack, announcing that he was going to join us.

To Olli's displeasure we were going to have to fly to shore. Ella had outright refused to let us use the boat and strand her on the island with no means of escape. Olli said it probably had something to do with her watching old Lost reruns all the time.

So we took off in the direction Olli promised Maine was, flying over the crashing ocean. No matter where we flew we go wet, too high and we were in a cloud, to low and the spray from waves drenched us.

Five hours had passed, and had it not been for Olli constantly checking a compass I would have been positive we got lost. Then again, it was nearly impossible to see anything out here, land could be a mile away and we wouldn't know it. The fog was terrible, and cold, making the air stiff and hard to fly through.

Not to mention it was going to start raining in an hour.

We continued pressing forward, Olli's dark silhouette looking like a scythe against the water, his wings up and curved like a blade. Occi had begun to start losing altitude, less experienced at flying than us. She also mumbled concerns about whether or not Laura had made her rust proof.

Olli motioned for us to follow him, and as a body we angled ourselves downward. A scrap of neon was visible among the green waves, and we headed for it.

As we got closer a lump of wood was visible bobbing like a toy ship in the huge waves. The twins dived for it, and I followed.

The roof was dome shaped and sat on top of a little cut out circle. Olli landed as gracefully as he could on the rounded surface, holding onto the metal post of the brightly colored flag. I dropped down beside him, and together we lifted the lid off the box, lowering ourselves inside. After a few seconds Occi joined us.

The space was wet, small, and cold. Once upon a time it had been painted white, but years had stripped most the color from it. There was barely enough room for us to all lie down, but on floating platform half full side, the small blanket Olli produced managed to cover the entire space. A few hours passed, and we all agreed we were rested enough to fly to shore, and since I knew the now steady rain wasn't going to ease up for a few hours, we decided we might as well get the trip over with.

The rain tore at our faces and pelted our wings, but we kept moving, the land finally within our sight. Occi lead us now, holding onto Olli's compass which I now realized had arrows pointed in all directions, the names of cities labeled clearly and an estimated distance to each one below. We were heading towards Augustan.

Well, at least I thought we were. The compass said we were five miles from it when we changed courses, now heading to the North West and following arrow labeled "Nearest Trackrunner."

"Where are we going?" I finally asked. Occi answered, but I only half heard her. At the same moment a mosquito had landed one my arm, and I was too busy freaking out and swiping at it to notice.

"AAAASTUPIDBUGGODIEINAMICROWAVE!!!!" I shrieked. And then I realized: I didn't hate mosquitoes. They had never bugged me before. What was wrong with me? Why couldn't I stand the sight of it? Why was I terrified that it might sting me?

Olli and Occi both stared at me, laughing. I raised a confused eyebrow at them, and they laughed harder.

"Nina is terrified of bugs. I guess it must be a new experience for Max." Occi chuckled and began heading to the ground. Below us was a little path, and through the rain I could see a small town. We all pulled in our wings and began the walk, striding past little brick houses, the majority of which had old couples sitting on the front porch and watching the rain.

Occi entered a small building and went to talk to the man behind the cash register. After a moment he handed her what looked like tree red poker chips, and she handed him a wad of cash. She motioned for us and pulled open a door leading to stairs.

Eventually we emerged on the roof, but it was like we stepped through a portal into a city. People were crowded together waiting in a sort of clustered line. Bridges stretched across all the roof tops and more people traveled between the stores, bags across their arms.

There was a quiet but definite hiss and a sleek black train like thing seemed to appear out of nothing in front of us. It stretched between three rooftops, and looking ahead of it I realized it was balanced on top of a rail. It reminded me of a subway, but it was above ground, and too quiet and fast.

The long line began filing aboard, us included. Over the next six hours it made many stops, at one point dividing in half and heading two different directions. People filed on in off in hundreds of different places. At one point we got off and boarded another "Trackrunner."

It was amazing how fast the outside world sped by, trees and lakes going past I seconds. The land slowly turned from leafy green forests with scattered evergreens to more sparse trees, less mossy ground, and the Trackrunner ran higher off the ground so as to not be affected by the mountains and canyons.

The whole thing made me jumpy, but less than usual. So many people that could be white coats coming on and off, too many to keep track of in such a tiny little sardine can suspended on a string above the world. When Occi finally told us we could get off I was barely out of sight before I took off flying.

I recognized the small town from way back when I lived in Colorado. I used to shoplift from there all the time, it was amazing Occi and Olli could get to the right place with the shoddy directions I had given them about where to go.

After a few minutes we had flown past the town to where I knew the old E shaped house should have been. There were only little signs that reassured me there had once been something there: a corner of a cinderblock here, a nail or two there.

"So when Angel said to ask Nina, I don't think it mattered if I was dead or alive," I explained to the twins. Occi let out a hiss and I looked over. She had reached down to tie her shoe and had cut open her hand on a remaining piece of a window. Before my eyes the open red cut closed to a pink line, and instead a line of blood ran down Olli's arm, the injury in the exact same spot. His sister glared at him, and muttered something about being able to take care of herself, and the wound reappeared on her, vanishing from Olli.

"Anyway," I continued, trying to ignore how natural the scene had been to the twins. "Angel thought she would be buried here, in the canyon. I suppose if there is a message she had hoped we would find it when we had her funeral. If we didn't find that clue, she assumed we would find the one in the bear. If I was alive, I could figure it out. If I wasn't, it told the flock to go to where I was buried, which Angel assumed would be here, again leading us to this clue. 'This clue,' being just hopeful thinking."

I swiveled on the edge of me heel, concluding my monologue with a nod as I jumped backwards off the cliff. Just before I reached the ground I pulled out my wings, easing out of the headfirst dive so that I was parallel with the ground, face down, my finger tips leaving trails in the red dirt. Gently, I brought the tips of my wings down, and the moment I had from the dive bringing me to a standing position.

Olli and Occi were just behind me, shoes hitting the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

It wasn't hard to find what we were looking for. A steel box with a rusty clasp was wedged into a crack in the cliff side. Inside was a little metal angel, a delicate halo suspended on it, and wearing a pretty brushed copper dress. The hair was also made of copper, but was little pieces of curled wire. But no matter how pretty it was, it didn't seem to have a cue on it about the real Angel. I searched it and the box for any hidden message, but there was nothing. I was on the verge of panicking when Occi took that figurine from me.

She pushed down her finger on the nose, and I was surprised to see it sink in like a button. While pressing down she held onto the head and pulled it out. From the neck slid a thin sheet of metal, shining like a sword pulled from a sheath. It took me a minute to realize it was USB chip. It took another minute to realize that we had neglected to bring a computer. After one more minute I had searched Olli's backpack in the desperate hope I may have been wrong.

In my hand I held the secret to a cause Angel had died for. But until I got back home I couldn't access it. You know what this means…

Back on the Trackrunner.

Three hours of tiny enclosed spaces.

A night in a dingy, dirty hotel.

Three more freakin' hours of tiny enclosed spaces.

A wet cold fly over an ocean.

And finally I was in front of a PC, waiting for it to turn on. 35 years had passed, and computers STILL took forever to wake up. The future is bleak folks.

The tower whirred and made pathetic "put, put" sounds as it loaded the data on the angel head. But Finally, FINALLY, **FINNALLY**!

It was still loading…

Then with a click, a word document popped open.

* * *

**I hate begging you guys to review. So I will say it one last time, and then hope you will remember for future chapters.**

**Reviews make me want to write more.**

**And my apologies for the cliffy. Yes, you should remember that for future chapters too. Muahahaha. :-P**


	15. Chapter 15

_If you can't ask Nina, ask her mom. _

_If she won't talk, it's because you have not injected yourself with the red liquid._

_If you don't know what I am talking about, ask Celeste._

All the people huddled around the computer screen – Olli, Occi, Aunt Ella, Grandma, and I – backed away and stared at what we had just read. Angel, you stupid moron head, it is ACTUALLY possible for TWO people to die. Sheesh.

Ella groaned and turned to me, eyes rolling up in question.

"Do you think it was Max she wanted, or will your memories work?" She cocked an eyebrow, and I backed up, swiftly retrieving the little red vial from the shelf.

"It's worth a try. Even if the blue liquid is gone, I would still like to know what it was." I was going to hand the liquid to one of my cousins, but Ella snatched it from me before I could, and took a syringe from the desk drawer. Convenient.

Olli pulled back from the group, repulsion clear.

"Mom, the last time anyone used that needle was when Uncle Fang injected Dad with the cure for the expiration date!" Ella just rolled her eyes and ran it under the kitchen sink for a minute, dried it with a dishrag, unscrewed the lid on the vial, poured the dark red liquid into the syringe, and injected it into her arm. You know; every day mom stuff.

For a minute she stood still. Then she began falling backwards, shuffling her feet so she just barely reached the couch. The injection spot looked like nothing more than a bug bite, but dark lines had begun to move up her arm, and with the opposite hand held her head, she sucked in quick, squeaky breaths. We were all huddled about her, grandma panicking. Part of me expected her to have a heart attack or something: she was so much older than she used to be. Her gray hair was pulled back by a rubber band, and her face was in desperate need of ironing. But she still had the same concerned look, the one I had seen when I first met her, showing up at her house with a bullet in my shoulder. Ah… memories.

Ella remained on the verge of tears, biting her lip and saying the lesser bad words like, "drat," and, "crud," over and over again.

Olli and Occi were jumping up and down on the heels of their feet, forcing out encouragement between less mild swear words. Panic was clear in their bulging eyes, and Olli kept sending me the this-is-your-fault glare.

But finally Ella settled down. She sat back in the couch, still holding her head but able to meet our gaze.

She stared at me, narrowed her eyes and raised her brows in question.

Then my head exploded.

It was like a brain attack, but there weren't just flashes of unrelated images. It was more like rewinding a movie super quickly than the usual slideshow. Everything spun around me, my sight always attracted to the brightest color in the scene so that my eyes swiveled around in my head. Nothing was clear enough or slow enough for any particular scene to come into focus. Then with feeling of flying into a concrete wall I found myself lying on the couch where Ella had been.

Ella. When I had thought the name all sorts of different images and words flashed before me; her quizzing me on vocab words, playing me in chess, swimming with me in the ocean. And in those memories my hair was black.

With a shudder another memory popped into my head, it felt like the most recent, like it happened yesterday. I was strapped to a chair next to a 35 year old Max. She was unconscious and they were sticking a needle into her brain while they tried to knock me out. The recollection was riddled with fear and hysteria.

"I remember everything," I said wearily. It was a strange sensation – or the lack there of. It was so natural for me to reach back into Nina's past and see what had happened. All the memories where I had blonde hair felt wrong and out of place in comparison.

There was so much to figure out and see, but right now my priority was Angel. Max may have been fading more and more, but Angel was still my little girl.

"I'm so sorry!" Ella cried. She was sitting on the floor rubbing her head. "It seemed right. There was a block in your mind, I don't know how but after the potion I saw it, and I think I got rid of it. Are you okay?"

I nodded, and vaguely mentioned how I had all of Nina's memories. They began whispering to each other like students taking a test that needed to ask their friend for a calculator or pencil. The name Breana kept coming up.

"Breana" didn't spur a specific memory. It was a general summary, and although I had glances at different times Angel had told me the story, each individual memory was too old to be complete. But in my mind I heard the story Angel told, and it was heavily associated with her voice.

"Once upon a time, there was a princess named Breana." I recited from memory. Everyone fell silent and looked up at me. They must have thought I was crazy.

"She was engaged to marry a prince named Dean next month, and despite that the marriage was arranged she was very in love with him, and very happy. But one night she heard a whisper coming from outside. She had always had unnaturally exceptional hearing, so she instantly recognized the voice to belong to her best friend, Cwen.

"'Breana!' She called up to her. 'I know you can hear me. This may be the last time I ever speak to you. I did something awful. If it makes things any better, I did it for a good reason. A man came to rob my house last night. I caught him in mid act, and he picked my little boy Charlie and threatened to kill him if I didn't let him escape. I killed the burglar. I didn't mean to, but it happened. The burglar's family tried me for murder, and they were so rich and influential they won. I am going to be hung tomorrow, I tell you this so that you may see after Charlie for me. It's a great favor, but please, you are the only one who can.'

"Breana heard the footsteps retreat into the distance, and knew that what her friend had said was true. The baby would be all alone if Breana did not help, Charlie's father had been killed in war a year earlier. Breana did not want the child to be an orphan, so she decided to take advantage of her great resemblance to Cwen.

"She sent a letter to her friend telling her to take Charlie and run, then the next morning Breana went to the hanging dressed as Cwen. Her plan was to give her friend time to escape, and then she would show the crowd that she was the princess and they would not kill her.

"That would have worked if the dead burglar had not been Kallen Jenkins. Cwen's husband had killed Kallen's brother, Aaron in war. Kallen had not been stealing for the need of money, but out of revenge. When his father heard of his second son's death at the hands of the same family he ordered Cwen killed. But when he heard she was only to be hung, he decided death was not good enough.

"Just after Breana announced her true identity, an arrow flew out of the woods and hit her in the side. The punishment was intended for Cwen, but instead the princess received it. The arrow was cursed, the wound it made was never to heal, nor was she ever to die.

"For months she lied half asleep, the cut never closing. Many nurses tended to her, but none knew what to do. It was Prince Dean who finally discovered where he could find a cure. There was a rumor that a lady lived deep in the forests who knew the cure to nearly every poison. He rode out to her, and she told him to find a flower that had three diamond shaped petals. She also warned him that if he cut himself on the thorn of the flower the cut would never heal, like with the poison.

"He searched the land and found two flowers that met her description, one blue and one white. He carefully picked one of each and brought them back to the castle. He decided to try the blue flower first, and ground it into a paste before spreading it over his fiancé's wound. He didn't notice that when he dropped the white flower it fell on a drop of blood and absorbed the red color. The blue flower cured Breana, and when she awoke she placed the red flower in a vase.

"Cwen escaped with her son, and led a happy life in a far away village. Breana married Prince Dean, and years later they had a little girl. One day the said girl was wandering the castle when she found the red flower. It looked the same as it had years ago. When the girl picked it up she accidentally stung herself on the thorn. She was amazed to see that the flower turned from red to white. The small cut healed, and later that day she discovered that she could hear unnaturally exceptionally well."

**That chapter irked me. It also didn't contribute to the plot as much as I would have liked… unless, readers, you see all the itsy bitsy metaphors in Breana's story. Don't worry, the next chapter, well… it will be a little short… but at least it will have a cliffy!**


	16. Chapter 16

For a second they waited for me to continue, but when they realized I was done Ella spoke.

"The red flower and the blue flower, that had to represent the vials." I nodded in agreement, and looked to Occi, who practically had whirring sounds coming from her head.

"The 'unnaturally exceptional hearing,' that's important, I know it is," She said softly, turning to Ella, "Mom, what exactly happened when you injected yourself with the tomato juice?" Ella rubbed her elbow.

"It was like there was a wall in Nina's mind, and I was holding it up. Taking it down was as simple as thinking about it, but once the wall was gone everything went back to normal. Although I still feel that I possess that ability, I think it just no longer has a use. I think I unlocked her memories…" She trailed off and looked to Olli, who had begun to snap his fingers over and over in realization.

"The red, that _is_ like the red flower. In the story Breana had good hearing, and her blood was absorbed by the flower and when her daughter cut herself on the flower, she got the ability to hear well. It's not quite the same, the power wasn't transferred identically, but the vial had Angel's blood. Mom, you accessed Nina's mind, like how Angel could read minds. I don't know why it is different, but it must be her blood in some form or another." Olli's gesticulation nearly knocked a lamp off the table. Occi looked like she had already figured it out, but her twin beat her to saying it.

Now everyone was thinking the same thing: what was with the blue vial?

"It cured Breana…" Occi said slowly. "Do you think the blue liquid could be _the_ cure? Like the cure to the expiration date?" Everyone stared, cocked their head, and looked at Olli.

"You may be right." He said, recalling the memory with ease. "We were in a spare room at the school. Jeb had a little metal bottle with a sheet of rubber over the top. He stuck a syringe through the rubber and pulled a small amount of the liquid, then injected it into Dad's arm. Yes, it was blue. Light blue." He paused. "And I broke the vial, I lost it. Sorry." He crossed his arms and threw himself into a squishy red arm chair in the corner.

We didn't bother to reassure him that we forgave him, he knew that we did. He was already back to trying to figure out the rest of the puzzle like the rest of us.

"So it was the cure," Occi said, "at least none of us have the expiration date, we didn't really need it." She said it confidently, but I noticed she knocked on the wood desk at the end.

"Why would Angel die for that?" I asked, wishing the question wasn't as rhetorical as it sounded. "The red vial, the only reason for it seemed to be to find what the blue liquid was for. I bet Angel hid what the blue vial was in Max's mind, somehow without making her know about it until someone injected themselves with the red liquid and unlocked it for her. Go figure on how Angel did that, but I am not too surprised. In the end, everything seems to have led us to learning what's in the blue vial. How could Angel have given her life for a cure we didn't even need?"

There was silence for a moment.

"Maybe there is something in the story we are still missing." Occi suggested.

"Well obviously Cwen is Max." Olli said. "Or I think so. It makes sense, Max was forced to kill Angel to protect Nina, and Cwen killed Kallen to save Charlie. The punishment being murder thing doesn't seem to tie in; it may just be part of the story. Or maybe Angel thought everyone would give her a harder time about it, and she would leave with Nina. That or we are reading WAY too much into a children's story. Either way, it doesn't help us."

The rest of the day was spent in speculation of the metaphors in the story, and why Angel would do what she did. Nothing more was determined though, each guess more ridiculous than the last and immediately discarded. Ella called her husband and told him what happened, and he said they would be back in two days. Gazzy would be coming with them, but he needed a day to wrap up work before he could leave for a while.

Hours later I was lying on the bed in my room, the now _ancient_ laptop Fang had stolen open. Everyone else had been asleep for a long time. The fact that Angel had died, maybe for a worthless cause, didn't seem to affect them as much as it did me. Angel had been dead to them for so long.

Max had published seven books about herself; the last one taking place when she was seventeen. Fang had mentioned a few days ago that Max had started an eighth book about Angel going evil, but had never finished it. I was reading the rough draft off the laptop, and was currently at the point right after Jeb let them out of the cages, but before Max killed Angel. Jeb had taken Max aside, they were in a supply closet, and Jeb was holding a syringe-full of the cure, and trying to persuade Max to let him inject her.

"_Let me do it," I said, taking the needle from him and only wincing a little as I stuck it into my arm. "What I don't get, is why the school didn't inject us with a whole bunch of the poison. We've been on the run for what," I checked my watch, "a lot of years. If they were able to give us a little poison, and keep giving us small amounts to keep us alive, why not up the dose so that if we escaped we wouldn't have time to tell everyone that the school existed or something?"_

"_It doesn't work like that," Jeb explained patiently, like I was a little kid that just didn't get it. "First off, the poison was not injected, the liquid poisons with contact to the skin. The scientists placed just a little on the back of you necks, after a while it left the marks. Whitecoats have a sick sense of humor, they got great enjoyment out of writing dates they predicted the experiments would die if they escaped." _

"_Yeah, enough with the reminiscing about the good ol' days," I interrupted, "Why didn't they go full scale, use small words, and less of them."_

_He sighed, rolled his eyes, but continued, "Increasing the amount of poison didn't just increase how long it takes for it to work. At a large amount, well not even that large, just an eighth cup or so would do, a person with that amount of poison is contagious. They would live for a month before they died, but after a week or so everything they touched, any air they breathed, if someone else so much as drinks water they swam in, they would get the poison too. It's extremely deadly, and hard to trace because for that first week there is now sign of the poison working. The poison itself is also very interesting. By what I've heard it is so easy to dye that it could be mistaken for almost any liquid, and when it is injected or swallowed it is completely harmless."_

_By now I was staring at him incredulously. "There is a deadly poison out there that has no way of being identified and I didn't know about it?" _

"_It is very, very hard to come by. The procedure for making it is top secret, held under the most secure conditions, well in an evil scientists' lab, but still under the most secure conditions. And there _is_ a way to recognize it. Every time I have seen it, it was azure, but that's just how they usually color it, so don't depend on that in case they chose to change the color. The strangest part about it is that the pigment is always left when the substance evaporates. A few years ago someone spilled a drop on a cloth. The color stayed beautifully on it, but the poison dried away."_

_I was already half way out the door, only listening to Jeb a little. Iggy and Fang were waiting for me and I had to find Angel…_

I stopped reading, but looked back at the word "azure". Everything fell into place, and with a horrible churning in my gut I realized what had to be done, what only Angel had realized, and why in the story the lady in the woods warned Dean that the thorns on the flower would cause a never healing wound.

I didn't have a choice, but I did have a way to make sure I was right.

Slowly I got out of bed, creeping down the hallway so I wouldn't wake anyone.

Quickly I counted the days in my head. One. Two. Today made three. Tomorrow would be four. But I couldn't risk assuming Jeb was right, that there was a full week, it had to be tonight, it had to be soon.

The door squeaked a little as I entered Occi's room. Celeste was sitting in the corner, her sides having been hastily sewn back together by Occi. Her right foot was a beautiful shade of light azure.

**Let me know if that was too confusing. Well, the end is supposed to be confuzling, but let me know if you can't understand the beginning. I try to update every Sunday, but I may be a little late for the next one, I have been looking forward to writing the next chapter for so long, but it will still take a while to get polished out. I wonder if any of you can figure out what will happen. You have all the clues.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Well here it is, the long awaited second to last chapter. **

**A big thank you goes to everyone reading this, and please, enjoy the end.**

It should have been a stranger feeling to know that within the next day I could call myself a murderer.

Angel really had given us something worth dying for. The cure may have been worth it, but the poison was worth so much more. And to have given us both in one liquid. Priceless.

In the story, if Breana had touched the blue flower's thorn it would have poisoned her. But when she mixed the flower with her own blood it cured her. Jeb hadn't been able to see it; he thought that the poison was just harmless when injected.

Angel knew the full truth. The poison was the cure.

If it was injected, as it had been to Max and the rest of the flock, it would cure them. If you touched it, as Olli did, it was poison.

Now I had a choice, my cousin or the world.

I had been preparing for this moment for two lives. The situation fell clearly into place, the right choice highlighted and my own disgust at the prospect of the task whited out.

Because for me, the answer always had to be, and always would be the world. Max had been raised in a game conducted by the school, the one purpose of it being to shape a person that would and could always do what was right. And I had been raised by her.

Slowly, I tiptoed down the creaking stairs, narrowing my eyes as if it would help me see through the dark. I felt my way around the drawers of the kitchen island, carefully digging my fingernails into the wood to pull out a hidden compartment. Max had showed it to me once when I was little. Back then I was too young to be of much use in a fist fight, so she decided it would be a good idea for me to have a gun.

The metal was hard and cold, the weapon surprisingly heavy. I tried not to think about what its use might have to be as I slipped it into my sweatshirt pocket, doing the same for some duct tape and kitchen knife.

Quietly, I flew back up to the second floor, letting my bare feet absorb the sound of my landing. If Olli had been raised the same way as Max, he wouldn't have been so quiet waking up. He probably would have punched me and flown out the window. As it was he blinked up at me groggily, and hardly objected as I led him down the stairs.

He paused at the door and by the pale green light of the microwave clock I could just make out him shaking his head no. But Nina, his old friend and old schoolmate, the girl who let him cheat off her homework knew what to say. We shook our head, blinked out eyes, and we gently coaxed him out the door, softly alluding to an old game of searching for crabs in the dark.

We walked out to a little picnic table perched precariously on the white rocks of the shoreline. He sat down beside me and stared at a piece of lined paper I handed him. Max had never seemed so distant as I explained to him what I had read in my late mother's book. Unlike me, he didn't understand about the poison until I outright told him.

"The expiration date, and the cure to it are the same substance. You didn't mean to, and it isn't fair that you will have to take the fall for what wasn't your fault, but this, Olli, is your last night to live. Jeb says you have a week. He could be wrong, and I will not gamble the world to give you a few extra days. So it all comes down to this."

"How do you want to die?"

I couldn't see him, but I knew he was trying to pull himself together. The cold autumn wind blew his tears across my clenched hands, and in the moonlight I could just make out his shoulders shaking. The poor kid. So young, only thirteen. He finally got all of his family back, and now he was being ripped from them. Again.

But he _was_ Max's nephew. In a minute he wiped away the tears and looked firmly into my eyes.

"I want to talk to Occi. And mom. And grandma. I won't go without saying good bye to them. And I want to call Dad and the rest. After all, I am dying for them." He folded his arms and looked back at me, challenging me. I couldn't help but smile. I assured myself that the fact that my cousin would be dead soon would catch up to me, but, for now, I was proud. He couldn't bury his emotions, but, like me, he was realistic.

"You can't talk to them. You know that. They love you too much; they would stop you or waste time by trying to search for a cure that you know we could never find in the time we have. Who knows how long that time is anyway? Thus, the paper. I will give it to them. Whatever you do, be honest; there are no consequences for you. But if you want to sleep easy, don't make them read hate-mail from a dead man."

He cringed, stared at me for another second to make sure I wasn't joking, then looked morosely at the paper, trying to find something that wasn't sheer dumb luck to blame for the entire event. With a quiet desperation he picked up the lined piece of college rule and wrote no more than a few sentences on it before folding it into a crane. He handed it to me with a smirk.

"I know about your diaries. If your friend was right about us not going to Heaven I am going to be really pissed off." He smiled for a second, but then it was gone. The clouds dropped back over us and the wind picked us up, pulling at the crane in my hand.

Olli closed his eyes, pulling in a breath that rattled his bones.

"Make it quick, make it clean. Don't make it hurt them to look at the body. Do you have a knife?" I pulled it out of my pocket, and held my breath, staring at him incredulously. There was no way he could be so calm. But with deliberate, steady words, he showed me where he wanted the blade to go, where it would kill him the fastest with the least damage to the body. Closing his eyes he braced himself against the tree, and I placed the edge of the kitchen knife against his back.

Through his thin shirt I could feel every numbered breath, every panicked and desperate heart beat calling out for help. The stars in the sky and the clouds in the air pressed in close and crowding, cramping, nauseating. And the world spun faster and faster, points blurred though my own tears, and with the hand not holding the knife I urgently wiped them away.

In the second that I hesitated to push the blade the last six inches it needed, humanity caught up with Olli, as I knew it would. Beyond all other emotions or the common sense a human may possess, in the end, the one constant factor was the need to live. And Olli had been raised human. With a cry, I tried to hang onto his arm as he kicked up from the ground, flying away in a mindless panic.

He seemed to vanish into the clouds, and only the drum beat like tempo of his wings let me know that he was still just above me, not yet having decided what to do.

I had been ready for it. My hand was already clutching at the hard wood handle, and with a crack like thunder the bullet sped out of the revolver.

Olli spun gracefully in the air, as if dancing. One wing fluttered with delicate perseverance, but he lost altitude and came slowly towards the ground, small drops of blood falling from above and shattering on the ground before me like rubies.

The beach sand was soft and warm beneath my feet. A little light peaking over the horizon showed the waves washing themselves across the shore. Olli landed as lightly as he could, staggering before he regained balance. His sky blue eyes looked at me with primal instinct, and he reached out for the gun in my hand.

I backed up swiftly, straying into Ella's garden where the pansies rubbed against my ankles. He reached again for the weapon, but I spun, lightly ducking under him. What I didn't see coming was his foot, sweeping the metal stick firmly out of my hand, letting it fall to the ground far off with a small thunk. Pale light filled the air, and I could see him move, twisting his arms up to block my punches.

For a second, Olli looked at the rising sun, and I took my chance. The knife's silver blade glinted, and with a quick flash I dived behind Olli, the smooth edge slowly sinking like a bird diving into water. Exactly where he had wanted.

The only sounds were the ever present ocean and his breath, the latter soft and faint. There was peace in his eyes as he kneeled to the ground, holding his hand to where the fatal wound was.

Was.

In that second, it was gone, and he stood back up, calm and ready as if there had been no injury at all. Finally Olli was back, the feral instinct restrained inside him. He stood still, the self control and pride in himself flashing behind his father's light blue eyes. Finally he could control himself and do what was right. To just stand there, and to suppress the urge to fight required more strength then most the world had in them. Maybe more than I had. Defiantly more than it would take to kill him.

"Please. I'm ready." He whispered. There was a glint of the knife's metal. A soft, gentle thud. And with the rhythmic swaying of the ocean the soul was carried from his eyes. Behind us the rising sun sent rays of gold glinting off the scarlet puddles. Birds sang from the far off oak tree, and little crabs made clicking noises as they scuttled across the rocks.

I gently closed the eyes of the boy I murdered, took the swan from the picnic table, and the tremendous sigh of the world carried me back towards home. Everyone was safe again.

I knew Occi had to be the first to know. I was Nina, but Max's memories were still there. Ella and Grandma were from both lives, and no part of me would be able to stand telling them first.

I plodded my way up the stairs, singing softly to myself for encouragement. I knocked on Occi's door, but somehow, thankfully, she had slept through the night's events. The pale handle creaked as I turned it and I stepped carefully onto her soft carpeting. Which way of hearing the news hurt her least? Should I tell her I had killed someone, and then tell her who I killed? Or that her twin was dead, and I was the murderer?

What would she do? Should I prepare for a fight? Or to comfort her?

Her only window faced east, so I had to turn on the only light—a purple lamp—to see.

She was tucked beneath her thick purple covers, eyes closed and mouth turned up in a smile.

"Occi, wake up." I kneeled down and whispered. She didn't wake.

"Occi…" I said quietly, like a mom trying to wake a young child for school. I pressed my hands down on the mattress next to her, making the springs of the bed lightly bounce her up and down.

"Come on, time to face the day." I brushed a strand of hair out of my face it agitation. Odd. My hand was wet. When I looked down I let out a little gasp of shock. I was covered in blood.

Had it really been that bad, killing Olli? No, I told myself. I had barely made contact with him, it was the knife that did it

Slowly, I brought my other hand up from the mattress. The red liquid on my fingers was wet and fresh. On the dark purple blankets the blood was barely visible, but when I pulled them away the white sheets were dyed a vibrant scarlet.

"No, oh no." I grabbed Occi's cold shoulder and began shaking her. "Occi, wake up, Occi. It's morning, oh you have to get up. I have something to tell you." I was sitting on the bed now, had pulled her head into my lap. "Cousin, cousin, wake up! You have to! Rise and shine!" I begged her. As if she was saying no, her head fell to the side, and I went quiet. Slowly I turned her over.

On her back was a deep, bleeding wound. With sudden understanding I dropped the lifeless body and backed towards the door.

The memory of the first knife wound I had given Olli fell into my mind. The first injury that should have killed him, the deep cut the knife had made in his back. And I remembered how a second later that cut had disappeared.

Then the events of the day we went to visit the old Colorado house came back. Occi had struck her hand on a piece of glass, and Olli took the injury from her.

Had she taken the fatal wound on purpose? Had she received it accidentally, only to die before she could give it back?

Olli's white crane fell out of my hand, the red of his sister's blood staining it. At that moment the entire truth of the two murders I had committed hit me, and I fell down against the hallway wall, sobbing with my head hung in my arms.


	18. Chapter 18

One Year Later

Aunt Ella, seeming to temporarily forget that she usually went out of her way to not make eye contact with me, had her arms around my neck, and her chin resting on top of my head so that tears fell onto the black bandana I was wearing. Uncle Iggy had a hand on her shoulder, and Dad was a few feet off, sitting on the seat of the old picnic table with Aunt Nudge, Uncle Gazzy, and Laura.

Despite that Laura killed my mom and I killed the girl she had raised for five years, we got along fairly well. We were both incredibly sorry about what we had done.

Because Ella and Fang hated her she rarely came to visit the twin's graves. That didn't stop her from coming though. It surprised me that she and Ella hadn't had their ritual shouting match yet.

Dad got up from the bench, and I took advantage of the opportunity to detach myself from Aunt Ella and follow him inside. We sat down on the top step of the stairs and through the window watched the attendants of the death-a- versary crowded around the graves.

I know Dad wasn't going to be the first to talk, so I felt the great need to say something. I brushed my pigtails over my shoulders and cleared my throat, sitting up taller, prepared to say something important, or regretful, or thoughtful about Olli and Occi.

But Dad looked up at me and I stopped in my tracks. He was 41 now, decrepit by my standards. His hair had more lines of gray than it should, and the look he gave me was the epitome bleak and sad. Taken by surprise, I gasped for air and did my best to refrain from crying. Of course it wasn't Olli or Occi—or even Angel that he was mourning.

"Dad." I said softly, causing him to actually make eye contact. "Dad, I miss mom too."

He looked away. Was he crying? No way, dad never cries. Musta been a trick of the light.

"It wasn't just her." Dad said, his voice rough, "Both of you left, and for five years I didn't know what happened to either of you. Maybe Max had taken you away from us. Maybe she wanted to raise you differently. You both may have been dead, in jail, or taken by the school. Then five years later, you were really alive, and she was really gone.

His voice shook like a goat standing on top on an active volcano, but he kept his cool. I knew exactly what he was going to say next, since he had told me a googolplex times.

"You know what the last thing she said to me was?"

"What?" I asked, playing along.

"She didn't say anything. She held out her fist, I stacked mine on top of it, and you stacked yours on top of mine. Max tapped the backs of our hands, and then she walked with you out the door."

Usually I would make some smart aleck comment about that not actually being the last thing she said, but I decided to change up the program.

"She did love you," I said softly. "I am Nina now, but I can still remember Max. She loved you a lot. She trusted you with her life." I bit my lip, weighing out whether or not I should tell him that the last thing his wife ever did was to reassure me that he would save us. I decided to rephrase it a little.

"The last thing she ever said was that you would save me. And you did."

Dad smiled a little and stood up, helping me up with him. Slowly we worked our way back to the little group of people clustered around the trees.

Two small, identical, curved gravestones sat next to each other. The first one read:

**Olli Griffiths**

**Born: May 13****th**** 2022**

**Died: November 6****th**** 2035**

There only difference between his grave and his twin's were two letters. O**ll**i and O**cc**i. Same birth date, same death date.

But readers, this story isn't about death. It's about the life before it. My mom, cousins, Grandpa, and aunt all died, but they were lucky ones. Their lives had adventure and excitement, people loved them, and what they didn't have they worked hard to earn. All of them, even Occi, died honorably, and no one could ask for more.

There were two other new stones at base of the oak tree. One simply had _Maximum Ride_ written on it. The other was roughly in the shape of a crane, and had the last letter Olli wrote engraved on it.

**I wish I had more time to live life before I solved the mystery of death. It doesn't matter where I am, but I miss you, I love you. There is nothing more pure I can say than that.**

**Except goodbye.**


End file.
